Psychiatry News and Research

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Psychiatry is the treatment, study and prevention of mental disorders.

Tenfold increase in OARnet network bandwidth speeds will boost medical research

Following his State of the State announcement of a tenfold boost to OARnet's statewide network bandwidth, Governor John R. Kasich joined medical researchers from across the state on Feb. 27 in a video teleconference to discuss how the faster network speeds will help enhance innovation.

29 Feb 2012

First study to show effects of ecstasy drug on fetal and infant development

A study led by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, in collaboration with the University of East London UK, and Swansea University UK, is the first to show the effects of the drug ecstasy on fetal and infant development.

29 Feb 2012

Silver Hill Hospital announces opening of Chronic Pain and Addiction Center

Silver Hill Hospital, the nationally recognized psychiatric hospital in New Canaan, CT, announces the opening of the Chronic Pain and Addiction Center, an intensive residential treatment program for patients with pain who have become addicted to opioid medications.

28 Feb 2012

Single dose of Ritalin may raise awareness of mistakes: Study

The study, by Dr Rob Hester from the Department of Psychological Sciences and colleagues at the Queensland Brain Institute, investigated how the brain monitors ongoing behavior for performance errors – specifically failures of impulse control. This study found that a single dose of methylphenidate (Ritalin) results in significantly greater activity in the brain’s error monitoring network and improved volunteers’ awareness of their mistakes.

28 Feb 2012

Active video games do not increase exercise in kids

Active video games have been promoted to help kids be more physically active. But a new study finds that having active video games in the home may not translate into more exercise.

28 Feb 2012

Largest study to date to observe dynamic social scenes in children with ASD

In a study published in the March 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Katherine Rice and colleagues, from the Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and Emory University School of Medicine, used eye-tracking technology to measure the relationship between cognitive and social disability in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and the ability of children with ASD to pay attention to social interactions.

28 Feb 2012

Childhood adversity may lead to epigenetic changes in glucocorticoid receptor gene

In a look at how major stressors during childhood can change a person's biological risk for psychiatric disorders, researchers at Butler Hospital have discovered a genetic alteration at the root of the association.

28 Feb 2012

People with depression have increased connections among most brain areas

Most of us know what it means when it's said that someone is depressed. But commonly, true clinical depression brings with it a number of other symptoms. These can include anxiety, poor attention and concentration, memory issues, and sleep disturbances.

27 Feb 2012

Medication plus parent training effective in treating children with ASD

Children with autism spectrum disorders who also have serious behavioral problems responded better to medication combined with training for their parents than to treatment with medication alone, Yale researchers and their colleagues report in the February issue of Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

27 Feb 2012

Translational research in addiction conference to take place in Texas

Young people starting out in addiction research will get a turbo-boost to their careers March 3-4 at an annual conference that puts them face to face with internationally recognized addiction researchers and clinicians.

27 Feb 2012

Project GREAT earns ACP's 2012 Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education

An approach to treatment that focuses on recovery from mental illness, not the treatment of it, is gaining national acclaim for the Medical College of Georgia Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at Georgia Health Sciences University.

27 Feb 2012

Statins may reduce risk of depression in patients with heart disease

Patients with heart disease who took cholesterol-lowering statins were significantly less likely to develop depression than those who did not, in a study by Mary Whooley, MD, a physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

27 Feb 2012

New drug for Huntington's disease might operate via previously unknown mechanisms of action

A study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that a new drug for Huntington's disease - pridopidine or dopamine stabiliser ACR16 - might operate via previously unknown mechanisms of action. Researchers have found that at very low concentrations, ACR16 binds to the sigma-1 receptor, a protein in the brain important to neuronal function and survival.

24 Feb 2012

New Huntington's drug might operate via previously unknown mechanisms of action

24 Feb 2012

Workshop increases pharmacy and medical students' empathy

One year ago, a landmark study led by Mohammadreza Hojat, Ph.D., research professor, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Thomas Jefferson University, quantified a relationship between physicians' empathy and their patients' positive clinical outcomes, suggesting that a physician's empathy is an important factor associated with clinical competence.

24 Feb 2012

Children of immigrant parents more likely to develop autism with intellectual disability

A major register study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows that children born to certain groups of immigrants in Sweden had an increased risk of developing autism with intellectual disability. The study includes all children in Stockholm County from 2001 to 2007, and brings the question of the heredity of autism to the fore.

23 Feb 2012

New phone number to University of Michigan memory loss and dementia services

Her diagnosis was scary: Alzheimer's Disease. So Myriam Torres was desperate for accurate information and help with coping with what the future might bring.

23 Feb 2012

Mount Sinai receives Le Foundation gift for psychiatric neuroimaging study

The Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine has received a $250,000 gift from The Iris & Junming Le Foundation to advance neuroimaging research conducted by young scientists in the early stages of their careers.

23 Feb 2012

Patterns of brain development are distinct in infants with ASD

Patterns of brain development in the first two years of life are distinct in children who are later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), according to researchers in a network funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study results show differences in brain structure at 6 months of age, the earliest such structural changes have been recorded in ASDs.

23 Feb 2012

Causal link between TBI and increased susceptibility to PTSD

Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are cardinal injuries associated with combat stress, and TBI increases the risk of PTSD development. The reasons for this correlation have been unknown, in part because physical traumas often occur in highly emotional situations.

22 Feb 2012